Do the Boston Red Sox have a bullpen problem?

The Red Sox chased Yankees starter J.A. Happ only two batters deep into the third inning of Boston’s 5-4 win in ALDS Game 1. They got a fine start from ace starter Chris Sale, who exited in the sixth inning with the Yankees still scoreless. If you paused the game in the third or fourth or fifth inning to worry about which of the two clubs might face bullpen concerns later in the series, you would certainly guess it’d be the one relying on relievers to cover six full innings on Friday.

But alas: Not only did a series of four Yankees relievers combine to hold the Red Sox scoreless for the remainder of the contest, but New York manager Aaron Boone was able to avoid using Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman — his most dominant late-inning options. The Red Sox, meanwhile, nearly frittered away a five-run lead and needed to turn to starter Rick Porcello to open the eighth inning, complicating their postseason rotation picture.

Boston will take the victory, undoubtedly, as a one-game advantage in a short series like this one makes them significantly more likely than the Yankees to advance. But for a juggernaut club that won a franchise-record 108 games in the regular season, Friday’s win exposed a glaring weakness: With closer Craig Kimbrel typically reserved for preserving late leads, the Sox lack any sort of lockdown arms to bail out tiring starters in the middle innings.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora needed five relievers to get through 3 ⅔ innings after Sale departed. Alarmingly, all three of the setup men he turned to before Porcello — Ryan Brasier, Brandon Workman and Matt Barnes — struggled with command, combining to allow three walks (one apiece) and throw two wild pitches in only 1 ⅔ innings of work.

“We made some pitches,” Cora said after the game, when asked about his bullpen’s performance. “It’s about getting 27 outs, having the lead. And we did it.”

“In a perfect world, the starter goes six. You have the seventh inning guy, eighth inning and ninth, and you move on. To get 27 outs at this stage is very difficult, and sometimes you have to go to Plan B or Plan C.”

Asked which plan called for using Porcello — who had been expected to start Game 3 on Monday — Cora said, “C and a half, probably.”

Rick Porcello (Paul Rutherford/USA TODAY Sports)

Knuckleballer Steven Wright, arguably the Sox’ most effective reliever for the final month of the season and a potential staff-saver for his durability, was unavailable Friday due to pain in his troublesome knee. The team is awaiting results of an MRI, Cora said, but Wright’s history of knee issues does not bode well for his return: He missed almost the entire 2017 season due to surgery, then returned to the disabled list due to continuing soreness.

The Sox’ bullpen was hardly awful in the regular season, finishing with a collective 3.74 ERA that ranked as the ninth best in the Majors. But the group had a rocky second half, with even Kimbrel appearing atypically hittable, and early season stalwarts like Barnes and Joe Kelly coming unglued down the stretch. And while proven relievers shuttled between teams in a flurry of activity at the trade deadline and in August waiver deals, team president Dave Dombrowksi and the Red Sox’ front office found no outside help to bolster the bullpen. Their relief corps yielded a 4.84 ERA in September.

There’s no single recipe for winning a baseball game in October or any other month. The Red Sox had the Major League’s best offense in the regular season, leading the league in team batting average, on-base percentage and slugging. Cora, while serving as the Astros’ bench coach, got an up-close view just last year of the way a great lineup can power a team to a championship despite some shaky performances from its bullpen. But those Astros had a deeper rotation than these Red Sox, which allowed them more flexibility to use starters like Lance McCullers and Charlie Morton in relief.

Cora said the Red Sox will determine on Saturday whether Porcello will make the Game 3 start in New York or get pushed back to a potential Game 4. To make things stickier, Saturday’s scheduled starter for Boston, David Price, has a history of rocky performances in the postseason.

One game deep into the postseason, Boston remains unbeaten. But Friday’s win both taxed and exposed a weakness that makes them look beatable.

The team’s relief group combined for a 4.84 ERA in September and looks like a glaring weakness.

I found this on FTW and wanted to share:
%link%
For more great sports stories ...
*visit For The Win: https://www.ftw.usatoday.com
*follow @ForTheWin: https://www.twitter.com/forthewin
*like FTW on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/usatodayftw